this is bbc news. i'm kasia madera, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. touchdown confirmed — perserverance is safely on the surface of mars. this is the moment, the perseverance rover — nasa's most ambitious mission to mars — landed successfully on the red planet, after a seven—month journey from earth. to work through all the adversity that goes, and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on mars, plus the challenges of covid — and just an amazing accomplishment. within minutes, the first image was beamed back by the rover — its shadow clearly seen — as it tweets, "i'm safe on mars. perseverance will get you anywhere."

facebook unfriends australia — the social networking giant blocks access to news media on its site in a row over paying for content. scientists say lockdown is working, as new covid infections in england, fall by two thirds since the start of the year. millions of texans are without power for a fourth day, after gas pipelines and wind turbines freeze over in a winter storm. and as texas froze, ted cruz flew to mexico. has the state's republican senator left his reputation out in the cold? hello, and thanks forjoining us. we start on another planet, mars, where the nasa perseverance rover has safely touched down. it has already started sending back messages from its new home, and will now set about the business

of trying to find signs that mars was once — and could even still be — a planet where life took hold. here's our science correspondent rebecca morelle. and a warning — her report contains some flashing images. perseverance is going about one kilometre per second. a nerve—racking wait at mission control. perseverance has landed safely, on the surface of mars! cheering. then celebrations as a signal is received from mars. it's touchdown for nasa's perseverance rover. and these are its first images — a view of its landing site before it starts to explore. the rover has even started tweeting, too... what an amazing team. to work through all the adversity and challenges that goes with landing a rover on mars, plus the challenges of covid, it'sjust an amazing accomplishment.

it survived a fiendishly difficult landing, burning through the atmosphere at 12,000 mph before a complex landing system brought it down, in an area with some of the oldest rocks on mars. it's amongst the most ancient crust on the surface of mars, capturing that period of time between 3.5—4 billion years old which isn't a period of time that is particularly well—preserved in rocks on earth, so we have a chance to find out about a period of the solar system that we have never studied before. this mission is all about finding signs of life — and the best place to do that is here, the jezero crater. today, it's dry and dusty, but billions of years ago it was a huge lake — and you can clearly see a river running into it. this gives you an idea of what it would have looked like. if we zoom in a bit more, these green areas on the edge of the crater were once beaches on the lake shore. and the hope is any microscopic creatures that once lived there are still preserved.

perseverance is the most advanced rover that nasa has ever built, and it's jam—packed with instruments. its robotic arm is equipped with a drill to collect rock samples. so what forms of life could they contain? i am not talking about martian little green men, probably not even fish. we're looking for microbial life, or maybe microbes that have made a little mat or a slime of sorts that you might find on the bottom of a pond. those are the types of things that are likely to... well, they did exist on earth 3.5 billion years ago. the question is, did they exist on mars at the bottom of lakes? for the first time, nasa will also be testing a mini mars helicopter to provide a new bird's—eye view of the planet. and back on the ground, the rover will store some of the rocks — a future mission will bring them back to earth, and some will be heading to the uk. these will be the most precious samples that we have on earth, the most exciting,

and scientists around the world will be absolutely fighting and clamouring to study them. getting to the red planet is just the start. now the hard work begins. this is nasa's most ambitious mission and our best ever chance to know where life ever existed on mars. rebecca morelle, bbc news. dr briony horgan is a associate professor of planetary sciences at purdue university in the us, and one of the scientists working on the mission. she gave us her reaction to the landing. we are so excited to get those first images back! you know, the landing is one thing, but when we got to see those rocks through those images, it's so exciting. so talk us through — we hear about the seven minutes of terror. let's start just before we got those images. talk us through what on earth must�*ve been going through your mind emotionally before. so many emotions! it's so hard to land on mars,

that's what's so important to understand that even today, we've learned so much, but it is still so risky and so dangerous. and you know, thejpl engineers totally pulled it off. it was such a huge relief to hear we had touched down on the ground safely and got those first incredible images back. and when it comes to the specific work that you were doing — given that we are in a pandemic, it must�*ve been so incredibly hard to get that level of expertise together, and the fine detail. talk us through a bit of how you all worked? yeah, it's been incredibly difficult to do this remotely. normally we would all be together in pasadena, you know, at landing ready to dive in. but it's been tough getting this mission going through the pandemic. but nasa's done a fantastic job, diverting resources and really making it happen. and on the science team, i think we have really learned how to work together remotely, and that'll be incredibly important in the months to come as we start running the rover remotely from our houses at 4am as a team. that teamwork will be really critical.

listen, congratulations, it's just phenomenal. when it comes to the pictures themselves — already memes have popped up. have you seen the one with bernie sanders in the image? it's just incredible, what people are doing. talk us through what we can expect to see and what we've already seen when it comes to the images that perseverance has fed through. so the images we've gotten already — these were from the hazard cameras, they're cameras the rover uses to drive semi—autonomously on the surface. and they were through the caps that are on there to protect it during landing. they're a bit fuzzy so we'll get much more beautiful, high—resolution colour images hopefully by the end of the day today, or worst case tomorrow. so we're hoping to be able to start doing geology right away with some of these incredible images, even as soon as tonight. that's just extraordinary, isn't it? and how long is the life span of this little rover? how many more images and messages can we expect to see from it? hopefully thousands and thousands! so our nominal mission is 1.5 mars years — that's about three earth years. but we're hoping to keep

going beyond that. you know, these rovers, spirit, opportunity, curiosity have all well outlasted their warranty from jpl. i'm hoping to do the same with perseverance, to keep persevering out onto the rim and out to the surrounding plains for years to come. perseverance certainly paying off. and when it comes to this search for what possibly could have been ultimately life on mars, what is your absolute hope to find? oh, i would love to find, you know, clear signs of microbes. for example, something like a stromatolites, which is one of the best pieces of evidence for ancient life in the earth's geologic record. there are these domed, layered structures that grow in microbes are growing in shallow water, and have minerals precipitating. they're something you can see with your naked eye. so something like that would be the best thing we could possibly find. but you know, any ancient sign of life would be a complete game—changer for science. we have to get her back on as

and when we get the next images. let's get some of the day's other news. the uk has announced asset freezes and travel bans on three generals in myanmar over the military coup earlier this month. foreign secretary dominic raab said the sanctions would "hold the myanmar military to account for their violations of human rights". the uk will also put in place new measures to prevent uk aid indirectly helping the military regime. life expectancy in the united states fell by a whole year during the first half of 2020 to 77.8 years — its greatest fall since world war two. provisional government data showed, that minorities had suffered most, with black americans losing nearly three years and hispanics two years of life expectancy. a belarus court has jailed two tv journalists for two years on charges of fomenting protests, forfilming a rally against the country's leader. katerina andreyeva and daria chultsova were arrested in a minsk apartment block in november while live—streaming

an unauthorised protest. they are with poland—based belsat tv. the duke of edinburgh is to spend a third night in hospital in london, after being admitted as a precaution after feeling unwell for a few days. prince philip — who will be 100 injune — is said to be in "good spirits". facebook is facing criticism from around the world after blocking people in australia from viewing news content on its site in protest at a proposed new law. the prime minister of australia, scott morrison, says he will not be intimidated by the social media company, amid a row over plans to force internet firms to pay for news shared on their platforms. 0ur media editor amol rajan reports. this is the internet, but not as we've known it. never before have a democracy and tech giant collided as they have in the past 36 hours — and the after—shocks are likely to spill out across the globe.

australians woke up to a new world, unable to access news sources via facebook after the social media giant carried through on its threat to the government there. what's this all about? well, over the past two decades, two deep global trends have occurred simultaneously. first, advertiser—funded facebook and google have become two of the richest companies in history. second, the business model of newspapers has collapsed. what connects these two trends is advertising. a generation ago, high—quality newspapers were largely funded by advertising. today, most advertising is online, and facebook and google account for around about 60% of all global digital advertising. that is a duopoly — and publishers want in on it. this is about who owes what and to whom, led by rupert murdoch, australia's newsrooms argue their expensive journalism makes these tech platforms more attractive and gives them credibility.

australia's government agrees. this is an assault on a sovereign nation. it is an assault on people's freedom and in particular it is an utter abuse of big technology's market power and control over technology. yet the data giants have strong counterarguments. publishers choose to be on facebook because they derive value from it, both reach and traffic that can be monetised. the tech giants have set up funds to invest heavily in journalism and, moreover, they say forcing anyone to pay someone just for linking to them reaches a fundamental principle of the web and privileges one category of information, news, over others. they want money so that people can link. now, this kind of breaks down the way that the world wide web has worked up until now, and it sets a dangerous precedent. google has taken a different approach — signing a bespoke global deal with murdoch's

company, news corp. that leaves facebook short of friends. amol rajan, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the impact of severe snow storms on millions of homes in texas. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect for the morale of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions in the streets. one wonders who is next? as the airlift got under way,

there was no let up in the erruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater flow down to the sea on the east of the islands, away from the town for the time being. it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded - their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch. _ they've called it mir, . the russian for "peace". this is bbc world news, the latest headlines... nasa's most ambitious mission to mars has landed succesfully on the red planet to look for signs of life, after a seven—month journey from earth. facebook unfriends australia — the social networking giant blocks access to news media on its site in a row over paying for content. scientists say there's been a strong decline in the number of covid infections in england since the latest lockdown began.

it is working, it seems. researchers at imperial college, who've been tracking the pandemic, say infection rates have dropped by two thirds. but there are warnings that virus levels are still high, particularly among the under—25s. here's our medical editor fergus walsh. lockdown is working — draconian restrictions on society mean coronavirus has fewer chances to spread. but that's meant closing schools, shops, pubs, gyms — putting normal life on hold. the latest evidence comes from 85,000 swab tests sent out to households across england. the survey by imperial college, from the 4th—13th of february, is good at picking up cases among those who don't know they're carrying the virus. the survey found that infections have fallen by two thirds across england in the past month, and are down 80% in london.

the researchers estimate that infections are halving every 15 days, but they warn that prevalence of the virus is still high, with one in 200 people across england thought to be positive — similar to levels seen in september. we know that the prevalence of the virus was much lower last summer, something like ten times lower, and clearly the more people who have the virus, and some of them will not have symptoms and not know they're carrying the virus, the more likely to do is to transmit to other people, so the lower we can get the prevalence, the better. there are still nearly the same number of covid patients in hospital as at the first peak in april last year. but there are now tentative signs that vaccines are beginning to save lives among the over—80s, the first to receive a covid jab. deaths among the over—80s have fallen by 54% since the middle of january.

much of that is due to lockdown, but they're falling faster than in younger age groups, where they're down 45%. as more and more people get vaccinated, that should start bringing down cases as well as deaths. at the minute, the over—70s, they only make up about 10% of cases but over 80% of deaths. as we start vaccinating younger people, that effect that we're seeing in deaths, we should also see more and more in cases. but there are concerns about the lower take—up of vaccines among black, asian and minority ethnic communities. you may not always trust what you hear and what you see, but you can trust the vaccine. a video urging people from all ethnic backgrounds to get the vaccine is being shown across commercial tv channels, and the nhs will be distributing leaflets in 20 different languages to try to

dispel myths about the vaccine. thank you. the vaccines do not contain animal products or foetal products, they do not affect your fertility, so if you're offered the vaccine please, please take it up, because that is what will keep you safe. borisjohnson will set out a road map for easing restrictions in england on monday and has promised a cautious approach that will focus on data and not dates. fergus walsh, bbc news. a blast of arctic weather has brought with it blizzards and record low temperatures across the united states — including to many southern states unused to such weather. in texas it has sparked an energy crisis — at one point more than four million households were without power.

lebo diseko reports from houston. this is one of the richest states in one of the richest countries in the world. drinking water and food supplies are running dangerously low, and homes are flooding because pipes, once frozen, have now burst. last night, we got power after two days. and we didn't have water. but finally, we got water. now we have water everywhere. texas would normally be around 15 celsius at this time of year. as temperatures hit —18 in some parts this week, the state wasn't able to cope. many here are dealing with a fourth day without electricity after the power grid failed. state governor greg abbott has been criticised after blaming frozen wind turbines for the collapse of the electricity grid. today, power was restored for some — but officials are warning that progress will be slow. that said, i also want to be clear with texans, because you need to know. there will be more cold temperatures in various regions across the state of texas tonight. many scientists say this is the impact of a changing climate — warm air moving up to the arctic, forcing cold air down to states like this one.

it was colder in texas this week than in alaska. in the midst of this crisis, kindness. these sea turtles would've frozen to death had it not been for volunteers braving the weather to rescue them. it's forecast to be dangerously cold once again tonight, and texans are being told to make a plan to keep their families warm as the threat of power outages looms once more. lebo diseko, bbc news, houston, texas. well earlier, i spoke to ice—fisherman alex peric who has been making the most of the conditions outside of his apartment in frisco, texas — and we promise, this wasn't planned. it's been very serious here, a lot of broken lights and heaters have not been able to work due to the rolling blackouts here.. the power comes on for 30 minutes then comes off. it's very unpredictable and it's kind of scary. now are you getting information

as to when these blackouts will resolve themselves? very unclear, they're kind ofjust letting us know it could be days, it could be hours — no real sign from any officials or anybody. talk us through how rare it is to see the water in front of your apartment ice over like that? it's pretty... i haven't been around for that long, but talking to elderly people and locals around here, they say they've never seen ice like this, and it's kind of crazy. just moved here for an ice company, now i'm in the ice. not sure if i brought down the cold weather or what happened, but it's cold. it certainly looks cold! you have shared some images of the wildlife, as well, having difficulties with this kind of extreme weather. and you've caught a fish

live on bbc news? there it is. i have a fish on bbc news! yes! i promise to our viewers, that was not staged. what will happen with your catch, alex? i'll let it go right now. letting it go — that's a decent thing to do. back in the water it goes. you coldn�*t make this up. well texas continues to struggle with sub—zero temperatures and widespread power cuts. by by following to a mexican holiday resort. ted cruz spoke to reporters in the last half—hour reflecting his decision. i half-hour reflecting his decision.— half-hour reflecting his decision. , ., ., decision. i started having second thoughts - decision. i started having second thoughts almost. decision. i started having i second thoughts almost the moment i sat down in the plane. because... 0n the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids and herfamily. responsibility to take care of our kids and her family. that's something texans have been

doing across the state. but i also have a responsibility that i take very seriously of fighting for the state of texas. and frankly, leaving when so many texans were hurting didn't feel right. so i changed my return flight and flew back on the first available flight i could take. i couldn't take a morning flight because the current restrictions require a covid—19 test, so i had to get a test this morning before i could get on a flight back, so i took the first flight i can get after getting the test and testing negative. to getting the test and testing neuative. ., , ., , negative. to understand why eo - le negative. to understand why peeple are — negative. to understand why peeple are so _ negative. to understand why people are so upset - negative. to understand why people are so upset right - negative. to understand why i people are so upset right now? it sounds — people are so upset right now? it sounds like you do have a bit of— it sounds like you do have a bit of remorse for this, but do you feel— bit of remorse for this, but do you feel it's deserved?- you feel it's deserved? sure, of course _ you feel it's deserved? sure, of course i — you feel it's deserved? sure, of course i understand - you feel it's deserved? sure, of course i understand what. of course i understand what people are upset. —— why people are upset. here's our north america correspondent,

david willis. ted cruz is on his way back. this really is a stunning misjudgment, isn't it? if you like, an unforced political error on the part of a man who is known to entertain presidential ambitions four years from now. indeed, ted cruz ran for president four years ago, only to lose out to donald trump. and he basically said that he went down, he was planning a family holiday during the senate recess with his family. he said he was going down yesterday and coming back today, and he was doing it because of his children, he did it for his daughters because he wanted to be "a good dad". but it has since emerged that he was due to stay there until saturday and only brought his flight forward after this storm that is engulfing him now — this political storm, not a meteorological one. ted cruz has been called upon to resign by democrats in the state of texas. and, as i say, it is a truly extraordinary political error on the part of somebody who has

a lot of political ambitions still, to be out of the stay at a time when many of his constituents are in freezing cold and, in some cases, are actually dying because of the temperatures there. david willis they're speaking to me before that press conference from ted cruz, who's now back in texas. a reminder of our top story... a nasa spacecraft that left earth seven months ago has successfully landed on mars, completing a journey of nearly half a billion kilometres. shortly after touchdown, the perseverance rover tweeted a picture of the surface of the red planet. the spacecraft is going to probe the dried up remains of an ancient lake, with a mission to search for any signs of activity by micro—organisms billions of years ago and send back samples. lots more on our website. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @bbckasiamadera. thank you so much for watching,

see you soon, bye—bye for now. hello there. the weather is going to be turning increasingly wet across western areas of the uk, thanks to an area of low pressure. this area of low pressure, in fact. and this cloud you can see here associated with the low is a weather front, a particularly slow—moving front. it's going to be bringing rain for some for the next couple of days. rainfall totals building up, then, but the wettest weather will always be over high ground — so the moors of southwest england, the brecon beacons, snowdonia, the cumbrian fells, northern ireland generally, and across southern and western scotland, particularly the highlands and the southern uplands. so we could see some localised flooding building in. the rain is beginning to arrive right now and, along with the wet weather some strong winds, mild air. temperatures about 8—9 celsius as we start the day on friday. further east it is dry, but it's chillier. temperatures around 3 celsius, most places should be frost—free.

now for friday, it's a wet and windy starts the day across these western areas with gusts of wind potentially running into the low—60s of miles per hour or so in places. outbreaks of rain with many of you for much of the day. there won't be much rain, though, across the northeast of scotland, and not a great deal of rain either across the midlands, east anglia, southeast england. there will be quite large tracts of the day that stay dry and bright, even. as far as further west, the rain pretty relentless. temperatures on the mild side, looking at highs of around 10—12 celsius fairly widely. and then into the weekend — more wet and windy weather to come across western areas. the eastern side of the country brighter and drier and, for some, it could turn very mild indeed for a time. the reason the weather gets a bit milder is the winds are going to start to come from a southerly direction, dragging the air up from north africa, spain, france, and on into central and eastern parts of england in particular, though east scotland not doing badly in places. further west on saturday, well, it's a wet and windy day coming up with the rain again very

heavy and persistent at times. temperatures, well, around about 12—14 celsius across western areas — which is still mild, but across the east of england we could see temperatures go as high as 17 celsius in 1—2 few spots. very mild indeed. 0ur weather front is still with us on sunday, but it is tending to fizzle, just a lump of cloud with a few patches of rain left on it by this stage. so more in the way of bright weather for scotland and northern ireland, a bit more sunshine here, temperatures around 10—11 celsius. eastern england still having the highest temperatures, perhaps up to 15—16.

this is bbc news,

the headlines. the american space agency, nasa, has successfully landed a rover vehicle on mars. after a seven—month journey from earth, the craft survived a high—speed plunge through the martian atmosphere, and tweeted a picture of the surface of the red planet. the perseverance mission will search for ancient signs of life. facebook has been accused of using bullying tactics after its decision to ban news on its platform in australia. prime minister, scott morrison says he will not be intimidated by the social media company — in a row over plans to force internet firms to pay for news. a study has found there's been a "strong decline" in the prevalance of the coronavirus in england — with infections falling by two thirds since the lockdown began. scientists from imperial college london say one in 200 people are currently infectious.

that's it for made. i will be